{"id":223016,"date":"2016-06-16T18:46:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=223016"},"modified":"2016-06-16T18:46:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:46:34","slug":"euro-2016-northern-ireland-stun-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=223016","title":{"rendered":"Euro 2016: Northern Ireland stun Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gareth McAuley’s header and a stoppage-time strike by substitute Niall McGinn helped Northern Ireland beat Ukraine to earn their first win at a European Championship.<\/p>\n

West Brom defender McAuley got on the end of Oliver Norwood’s perfectly delivered free-kick for the crucial 49th-minute opener.<\/p>\n

After the players were withdrawn because of a hailstorm, McGinn followed up Stuart Dallas’ fierce shot to make sure of a famous victory and revive hopes of progressing to the last 16.<\/p>\n

Michael O’Neill’s men know they cannot finish bottom of Group C now as Ukraine remain without a point.<\/p>\n

However, after losing their opening match to Poland, they may still need a draw against Germany in Paris on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

O’Neill’s tactical masterclass<\/h3>\n

Michael O’Neill gambled by making five changes, including relegating top scorer Kyle Lafferty to the substitutes’ bench.<\/p>\n

Lafferty’s place went to 24-year-old Conor Washington, the QPR striker who was working as a postman and playing for St Ives in the ninth tier of English football the last time the Euros were staged in 2012.<\/p>\n

But it paid off fantastically as Northern Ireland clinched their first win at a major tournament since famously beating hosts Spain at the 1982 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Washington and Ward proved a handful for a Ukraine team who had kept 21 clean sheets in their past 39 games.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland’s strength from set-pieces told again as McAuley, 36, brilliantly got on the end of Norwood’s well-taken free-kick for the first goal.<\/p>\n

After a hail shower that saw the players withdrawn and substitutions, six minutes of stoppage time were added on.<\/p>\n

But Northern Ireland’s nervousness disappeared when Aberdeen winger McGinn pounced to seal victory.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\"Czech<\/div>\n<\/div>
Czech referee Pavel Kralovec led the players off for a two-minute delay during the second half after a hail storm<\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption>
–<\/figcaption>
Source: BBC Sport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth McAuley’s header and a stoppage-time strike by substitute Niall McGinn helped Northern Ireland beat Ukraine to earn their first win at a European Championship. West Brom defender McAuley got on the end of Oliver Norwood’s perfectly delivered free-kick for the crucial 49th-minute opener. After the players were withdrawn because of a hailstorm, McGinn followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":223019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/223019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}